Authors incite creative know how at workshop

By Katie Collins Brush News-Tribune Staff Writer

Posted:
01/15/2013 08:19:15 AM MST

Updated:
01/15/2013 08:21:34 AM MST

Local author and annual presenter for the Blue Horizons writing workshops Jon Erickson helped motivate students to delve deep into their characters by presenting his own collection of inspiring photographs, including one antique photograph of a man who students at the this year's workshop at MCC named J. Fartherington Wellington III, Esquire. Students wrote and described this character in depth, giving him a history, scenery, motivations and idiosyncrasies galore to bring him into reality, just as Erickson prompted them to. (Courtesy photo/Wayne Carlson)

It’s become a traditional adage among writers and on Thursday, January 10 during the Blue Horizons’ sponsored Middle School Writing Workshop held at Morgan Community College the phrase “Show, don’t tell” was explained in depth by local author and annual event presenter Jon Erickson and reiterated by acclaimed children and teen-genre author Denise Vega, who both graced the nearly 50 talented students from Brush, Fort Morgan, Weldona and Wiggins schools. “When the writer is merely telling, we often feel distanced from the character and situation,” noted Denver-based author Vega, who was thrilled to be invited to speak to a room full of bright-eyed middle school students from throughout Morgan County who were selected by their instructors based on character, talent and passion.

Award-winning young-adult author Denise Vega, based in Denver, made a strong impact on students at the Blue Horizons Writers Workshop hosted at MCC during two programs on January 10 that explored how to capture an audience with writing, and how to publish. (Courtesy photo/Wayne Carlson)

“It’s not as interesting, even though we are given the facts that we need,” she continued. “But rather than telling your reader something, you should be showing it to them. Put them in the scene so they can see, hear, taste, touch and smell what the character does.”Author Jon Erickson of Brush, who has inspired students at the Blue Horizons’ workshops annually, also emphasized this to student writers during his morning program that focused on developing characters and refining characterization. “We are writers and we can’t accept simple answers,” voiced Erickson. “We create reality with our writing and throwing out character descriptions just to get it over with to move on with the book is just one of the many things not to do.

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” During this introductory session, Erickson pulled out his large collection of photographs which he obtained during an antique store purchase, now used to help in his teachings on how to capture an audience with characters. Erickson displayed one antique photograph of a man and asked students to write his description, prompting the young authors-to-be to dig deep into this man and delve into his idiosyncrasies and motivations. The group, as a whole, even came up with a name for the gentlemen portrayed, calling him J. Fatherington Wellington III, Esquire and bestowed upon him a great deal of situations, settings, smells and thoughts that indeed helped bring this fictional character to life. Brush News-Tribune reporter Katie Collins was also on hand to provide students with tips on conducting a successful interview, citing that even the exploration of fictional characters can be aided by investigations into similar and real people, reiterating Erickson’s notion that writers can not accept simple answers.Students were then given the chance to interview one another using the techniques and tips provided. “Even young people need to learn how to interview,” wrote Weldona student Matthew B. of the event, “It works on people skills.”The highly anticipated feature speaker of the day came with the arrival of Denise Vega, the award-winning author of six young-adult novels such as “Click Here (to find out how I survived seventh grade)” which became a Colorado Book Award winner, “Access Denied (and other eighth grade error messages)” as well as the award winning “Fact of Life #31” and “Rock On: A story of guitars, gigs, girls and a brother (not necessarily in that order)”. Vega earned a bachelor’s degree from UCLA and her master’s from Harvard before becoming a panel presenter at the Colorado Teen Literature Conference in Denver and moving on to become an energetic speaker for many student writing workshops. During her first presentation, Vega got students invigorated and putting pen to paper while teaching them methods of showing, rather than simple reporting.Students were asked to choose random scenarios from a bag to develop their own showing through strong verbs, dialogue and vivid description, with students given ample time to share their creative designs. Her second session, entitled, “How a book becomes a book” had Vega use a power-point presentation to show how books emerge from a drafted manuscript to a published revision, with many revisions being cited during stages in between. Using her last novel, “Rock On” as a model for how a book evolves, Vega detailed her own experience including initial meetings with her peer review group and their critiques and suggestions.In her presentation, Vega suggested that if during their writing students get stuck with the dilemma of writer’s block, they should branch out and try a new format for writing, with lyrics of a song given as a possible option. “Never give up on a dream,” Vega said to her students, many of whom counted that very quote as their favorite and most inspirational of the day. For Erika Godinez-Martinez, a most memorable source of motivation came upon hearing Vega say, “Rejection gets you to success.”“Denise’s presentation made me think about my writing career,” wrote student writer Ashlei Van Gorder. “I’m really excited now.”“I love how she had some people write about the same event,” wrote Allison Kopetzky of Wiggins, “but there were always different outcomes.”“I thought that it was amazing and I could really connect with it,” wrote Malachi Vondy in his thoughts about Vega’s presentation. Brush Middle School eighth grader Seth McConnell took inspiration from Vega noting, “If you have an idea, write it.” Putting pen to paper was also a first step reiterated by Jon Erickson who gave students another great piece of advice in saying, “We don’t have to be perfect, we don’t have to be right and the story doesn’t have to be long. We just have to write.”Vega was thrilled upon entering the MCC venue, which is provided for the workshop by MCC, free of charge, saying, “I am really looking forward to this presentation because the kids here want to be here, they have a passion for writing and displayed that passion to the point that their instructors selected them to be here, so they will be a great audience.”Students at the workshop were given the opportunity to share and discuss their own writing with author/presenters and with the volunteers from Blue Horizons who each and every year for the past seven years have worked tirelessly to organize this and many other unique opportunities for Morgan County children to experience. lish.

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